Doomsday Wonderland

Lin Sanjiu walked for half an hour on a snow-white expanse that resembled a vast sheet of paper.

Aside from the mounds of text that made up the game, there were no obstructions on this paper-like land. However, she and Yu Yuan didn't walk quickly. Finding a direction and boundary on this blank expanse was challenging. Even with a Veda by her side, she inadvertently retraced her steps several times. If it weren't for encountering the same texts again, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't have even realized they had lost their way.

They left the cluster of texts from the Mall Warfare far behind. For about ten minutes, they hadn't seen any other text related to the game. It was reasonable to believe they had moved out of the game's domain. However, Lin Sanjiu couldn't be sure where they were heading.

"This is different from what I expected," Yu Yuan said calmly. "In my analysis, you were treated differently in the game... probably to prevent you from discovering its essence. This suggests that there's an independent will behind this game. But we've entered the script's base, and we still haven't found this will."

Lin Sanjiu had considered this too. "Maybe they're somewhere else?" she suggested. "After all, with so many games happening simultaneously in this world, that will can't possibly monitor everything and everyone."

"On a planet of this size, the Veda can."

"Oh."

"However, the will here is clearly not the Veda's. The way they created this world is strange," Yu Yuan said without a hint of confusion. "A game and world built this way are fragile. Without proper maintenance and operation, it's likely to collapse. Why would they use 'text' as a medium?"

One factor that might cause a collapse, Lin Sanjiu herself, was steadily moving forward.

Before setting out, the two had discussed why the texts deep underground could become reality on the surface. After much debate, it was the Veda who convinced Lin Sanjiu.

"It might be some kind of projection feature," Yu Yuan suggested.

"Projection?"

"Yes. The meanings formed by the text are projected into the real world, becoming reality." He pointed to a cluster of text not far away. "We haven't wandered far, which means the mall game's text is right below it. This is a clue, suggesting they project reality directly onto the surface. They are the drafts of reality, like a projector."

Even though he lacked emotion, his analogy made sense to Lin Sanjiu. It meant that there was indeed a car stuck on one of the offices on the sixtieth floor. She paused, a chill running down her spine.

"Wait, if it's directly projected upwards." She looked up at the pure white above, no longer seeing the passage formed by the character 'tube'. "I think I know where the grand prize is!"

"Oh."

She might not know where the next game would be written, but she could at least save the grand prize first. Lin Sanjiu took a few steps forward and called out, "Are you coming?"

"I still don't understand why I should follow you," Yu Yuan replied leisurely. "I can't find a logical connection between your requests and reasons..."

Lin Sanjiu didn't pay him any attention.

She was almost going mad in her mind, making all sorts of demanding requests of Mrs. Manas — at this moment, Lin Sanjiu was the worst kind of boss: 'although I can only provide you with limited Higher Consciousness, you must accomplish every task I set, such as identifying which of the buildings amid this vast expanse of white paper without any references was the one the grand prize was taken from.'

"I think it should be here," Mrs. Manas hurriedly said, "No, no, let me think again... Hmm, you might have deviated by sixty degrees earlier."

Perhaps she was too pushy and demanding, because after a while, her own subconscious representation got annoyed with her. "I am you. Don't you realize? This is all you're capable of, so what can I do?"

It would be great if she could ask the Veda, but unfortunately, Yu Yuan had never been to that apartment building. With a mix of trepidation and the half-analytical, half-mystical guidance of Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu walked for another twenty to thirty minutes. Finally, she saw a faint shadow on the horizon — it seemed like a new group of characters.

Having a target in sight, Mrs. Manas promptly resigned her services. Energized, Lin Sanjiu called out to Yu Yuan and sprinted off.

She guessed correctly.

As she plunged into the group of characters, she felt as if she was back in the lobby of the apartment building. This group of characters was far more complex and massive than any she had encountered before. She could barely recognize individual characters as she could only see parts of the strokes, intricately interwoven, resembling oddly shaped rebar. Familiar with the layout, Lin Sanjiu swiftly turned a corner and headed for apartment No. 1 — or at least the textual structure representing its entrance.

Ji Shanqing wasn't there.

"Grand prize?" She spun around in desperation, taking in the courtyard formed by the text and the sprawling text of the second floor. She shouted, "Grand prize? Where are you? I'm here!"

Silence surrounded them. It seemed like only she and Yu Yuan existed in this vast expanse.

"Grand prize!"

"It seems like no one is here," Yu Yuan said, emerging from behind the text wall. He seemed to have been observing the building. "The entity operating these games isn't present here. If Ji Shanqing was indeed taken by them, which seems likely, then Ji Shanqing won't be here amidst the paper and text but rather on the side of the operator."

"But when I heard his cry for help, I saw pure whiteness—"

"He might have been here for a while when he was taken to the operator's side."

Lin Sanjiu remained silent. She repeatedly replayed the moment she heard the grand prize's plea for help, analyzing it for any missed clues while pacing aimlessly.

Behind this textual building, like in Mall Warfare, there were other text groups representing game logic, rules, content, and characters. However, there was no sign of the grand prize.

"Where could the operator be? If you say that these words were indeed 'written' by someone, where and how did the operator write them?" she murmured, looking up at the pure whiteness above. It was hard to imagine a pen or a blinking cursor in a document suddenly appearing overhead, beginning to write; moreover, that seemed impossible since the expanse above was the planet's surface.

"I really don't know," Yu Yuan said and paused before continuing. "Since I've been here, it's the first time I've realized that there's so much I don't know. I originally thought that the Veda were beings closest to omniscience and omnipotence in the universe."

It seems he's no longer a reliable reference point.

All these things about text, paper, and operators had surpassed her common knowledge. She found it hard to even comprehend, let alone crack the mystery. Lin Sanjiu bent over, wanting to just close her eyes and slump to the ground. She felt like stamping her feet, wanting to topple the words and tear up the paper— the whereabouts of the grand prize were unknown, Lily had become text, and even Whit E. and Qian Dao, whom she had originally intended to help, by now, probably... probably...

She suddenly looked up.

"Do you have an idea?" Yu Yuan asked. While the Veda had lost most emotions, it still retained its thirst for knowledge.

After they fell from the building's tube, Lin Sanjiu saw the textual representation of buildings, the rules governing them, and even the text form of the robot JoyBee. But only now did she realize that some text that should've been present was missing.

"You said that Lily shrank in the elevator because her text was absorbed by that tube, to be delivered down here, right?" Lin Sanjiu could barely contain her excitement. "We took Lily halfway, so she wasn't delivered here. But there were other people in the other two elevators – where did Whit E. and Qian Dao go after they were absorbed?"

"They probably went elsewhere," Yu Yuan replied calmly. "They weren't supposed to be part of the Mall Warfare game. Perhaps the text that made them up was taken by the operator and placed elsewhere— Oh, I see what you're getting at."

"Exactly, that's what I think. If the operator took their text elsewhere, that means... their text had contact with the operator."

Lin Sanjiu articulated every word carefully, as if fearing that speaking too fast might cause her idea to escape her grasp. "You've read me, you know. When I was hiding in Qian Dao's office vent, I used [Migratory Letters] to communicate with Lily, and Lily used a communicator to stay in touch with Whit E. They were always on call."

Yu Yuan nodded, neither surprised nor puzzled.

"And the communicators she and Whit E. had... I gave those to them."

As she spoke, Lin Sanjiu had already taken a communicator out of her card inventory.

"Remembering to contact Whit E. now might be a bit late," she said deeply. "I can only hope..."

"What is it?"

"That is, when the operator gets new text material, they don't use it right away. Conceptualizing and writing takes time. If the operator hasn't started writing a new game, Whit E.'s text might still be with him," Lin Sanjiu said as she dialed Whit E.'s communicator. "It's quiet enough here, on most of this blank paper, there's nothing to obstruct the transmission of sound."

From a distant place, the familiar ringtone ofthe communicator echoed faintly.

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